Judgment Statistics

At our company, we have checked the long-term fates of more than 20,000
judgments over many years. The only good news is that our initial opinions of
the judgment creditor's actual situations (by searching only public data
records on the judgment debtor) were almost always correct. The bad news
is it seems that more than 95% of creditors not paid quickly, got paid
nothing for their judgment; no matter how many people and companies they
sent their judgment to.

This article is my opinion, and not legal advice. I am a judgment broker,
and am not a lawyer. If you ever need any legal advice or a strategy to
use, please contact a lawyer.

Currently, there is an often-quoted statistic seen all over the web, that
comes from the old days (about 15-25 years ago); that "80% of judgments
are never recovered". With the nationwide loss of assets, jobs, and income
for the average person, that old statistic fell apart long ago. I think
the statistic is now closer to 95% of all judgments are never sold or recovered.

When our company is sent a judgment (and more importantly, information
about the judgment debtor) we view the judgment debtor's situation using only
public data record searches, and our somewhat proprietary web-based
searches. We give creditors a limited; however honest, objective, and free
summary of their judgment situation.

Consistently, creditors with average judgments contact us, and say their
debtor is rich; and they usually want to sell their judgment quickly for
cash upfront at (e.g., 50-95%) of its face value.

The most common scenario is a judgment is sent to us, with an allegedly
"rich" debtor. When we use public data searches, we find their debtor does
not own much of anything, and has many judgments against them, and/or
crime and bankruptcy histories, uses several SSNs, etc. Often, the
creditor's rosy picture for their debtor's situation, was from a long time
ago, before the debtor got sued, and has since soured; and there are now
no available assets that can be attached to repay the judgment.

We have been sent at least 20 thousand judgments over many years, and when we have
to tell creditors we think their debtors seem poor now, and nobody will
buy their judgment for (e.g., 50%) cash upfront; the usual reaction is the
creditor instantly rejects our expert opinion. They say we are wrong, and
some say they will go to websites that will pay them (e.g., 50%) cash
upfront for their judgment.

Nobody pays even 10% for average judgments. Because our company insists on
a copy of the judgment before we will research the debtor using public
data records, we have checked the long-term results for thousands of these
"rejecting creditor" judgments.

When you have the case number, most court websites let you see a summary
of judgment actions within their court. Some courts do not have websites
which show detailed judgment transaction histories. In our several-year
study, we sampled more than 3,000 rejected judgments; however only 1,700
had court information online that we could check.

All judgment sales and recovery procedures require court actions. Out of
that group of 1,700 "rejecting creditor" judgments, only 8 had any kind
of court actions whatsoever. That means 1,692 of those creditors never found
a judgment buyer or got a dime for their judgment.

If their judgment was sold, an assignment of judgment would have been filed at the
court. If anyone was trying to recover the judgment; there would have been
a writ of execution or a similar kind of document, filed at the court. Even for
the eight judgments with any kind of court actions; only three creditors got
any money, and only two judgments were fully satisfied (probably with a settlement
for less than the full amount owed).

Of course, many other creditors did believe our initial opinion about
their judgment's situation, and we quickly found the best recovery experts
for them. Even though we are the best, and work only with the best; even with
our help, less than a quarter of judgments sent to us have any money recovered.
All too often debtors filed for bankruptcy protection or lost their houses/jobs.
When a creditor accepted an actual judgment buyer's offer, they got paid.
When a creditor used a recovery expert, they got a real chance to get paid
much more than a cash upfront sale, over time.

Out of the many thousands of free creditor referrals we have made over the
years to experts, so far, only about 25% percent of the judgments had
any money recovered at all; a very sobering statistic. Even so, this is a
bit better than the general 95% statistic, because these were creditors
who faced reality and found the best judgment enforcers.
No wonder real judgment buyers do
not pay much for average judgments.